We hit the Freeform press room at this year’s New York Comic Con, where media outlets of all kinds got the chance to sit down with the Shadowhunters cast and executive producers. For our roundtable, stars Isaiah Mustafa and Alisha Wainwright talked a little about Luke’s role as a father figure, the Shadow World from an anthropocentric perspective, and Maia’s significance with Alisha’s newfound status as a series regular.
With her upgraded status, Alisha was more than willing to delve into how it felt to now be a series regular. “It feels great, honestly,” she admitted. “I mean when you think about how involved I was in Season 2, it almost feels similar in terms of storyline, but just the amount of support from production and obviously the cast has been insurmountable, beyond anything I had ever expected, and for that, I am super-duper grateful.”
The tone shifted quite dramatically when the pair were asked about the importance of Shadowhunters’ portrayal of different issues, racism, homophobia, betrayal, with their significance to our current society. “I think it’s good because the show is a little microcosm of the way the world is,” Isaiah said. “It definitely gives each group of people a glimpse into what it’s like to be another group of people, by showing you how hard it is for a warlock to date a Shadowhunter or a werewolf to date a vampire. It’s really cool like that, and kind of a testament to the cool writers, and showrunners, and producers that we have.”
“I feel like with the genre, there’s so much opportunity to say something, and to say a lot of things without saying something specifically,” Alisha elaborated. “And then, what’s even more wonderful is you can branch out and talk about mundane stuff, like when Maia talks about, when we [Luke and Maia] had our flashback and he [Luke] talks about Maia having issues trusting policemen in the past; so that’s like a recurring theme with her character, and so that’s like we’re hinting at stuff, and we also talk about the dynamics between the werewolves and vampires, and when we’re talking about that, but we’re also painting a reflection of our own society and how people sometimes cannot, they don’t see the big picture on how…” she took a few moments to find the right words, “…small-minded they are.”
We put a question forward, inquiring at their evolving relationship and if we could look forward to seeing it continue to develop and strengthen.
“I think so. I mean, so far – and this is the cool thing: we only know up to what we have – so far, we can see it moving in that direction, but then we get a little hint that maybe– like little tidbits of information from the guys, so…” Isaiah said.
Alisha expanded, “I feel like I can say pretty confidently that you will be exploring the wolf world way more than you anticipated,” she said. “And so, just because you have a president that does stuff and a vice president that does stuff, they don’t necessarily always interact with each other.”
“Or agree,” Isaiah added.
“Or agree,” she concurred. “And they’re handling different aspects of balance, and so I think what’s interesting about our characters is that Maia is a little bit hot-tempered and he is so wise and fatherly that you do– I think it’s just natural that we butt heads, but it’s coming from a place of commonality that we do have the same goals in mind. So, we’re not against each other, but we sometimes get in our own way a little bit.”
“Yeah, they’re gonna butt heads, but it’s the way like a brother and a sister, a father and a daughter, like that kind of butting heads,” Isaiah added. “There’s no animosity to it, but there’s definitely strong opinions.”
On their input into the writing and their character’s trajectories: “I think ideas can be heard. But the direction they take it in has nothing to do with us,” Isaiah said.
Alisha expanded, “At the [initial] talk of every season, we kind of get a general outlook and contextualize what each character’s journey will be – very loosely – and obviously, things may change. But I can definitely say, without giving anything away, I had a really interesting, long discussion with Todd and Darren, and recently, I saw that scene translated into – or saw that conversation translate into – a scene that we recently shot that I’m super excited about because that was something I was really passionate about bringing to the story. And they had already been thinking about [doing something like that], but knowing that we had that conversation and seeing it come to life makes me have that extra special bit of pride in the show. Not only am I the character but…”
“But you’re being heard,” Isaiah finished.
We then managed to get another question in, asking if we will get to see Maia’s connections grow and friendships blossom, Alisha said, “I will say that you can’t forget her opinions about other parts of the Shadow World, so knowing that moving forward – the last time she was in the Institute, she was in handcuffs, so she’s not super excited about Shadowhunters, and obviously, maybe Jace softened her up – is that the right thing to say?” she laughed. “[Even though] the show moves super fast, I do think they’re taking their time and slowly bridging those relationships, so you will see Maia interact with other people, but I think the core of her concerns are just her territorial nature, so you will continue to see a lot of Luke and Simon stuff, just because she keeps it close, and she doesn’t like meeting new people.”
“I would love to see Maia and Izzy,” Isaiah added. “That conversation…”
“You did!”
“No, no, I’m saying like–”
“Like not having a man between them?”
“Yes. Yeah, like a normal, real…” Isaiah elaborated. “Like these two women get together and they have a conversation.”
Alisha agreed, “I look forward to that too.”
Check out our roundtable interview below:
Interviewer for BSS: Sara Gale. Filmed by Kenneth Cressman.
